The Value of Research: Telling the R&T Story

The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) plays a leadership role in shaping and executing a National Research and Technology (R&T) program. The agency also acts as a convener; collaborations with State, industry, and academic partners provide the foundation for conducting research and developing innovations that are essential, indispensable, and connected to the needs of transportation system users.

FHWA's continuing commitment to highway research and the implementation of ground-breaking technology is changing the way roads, bridges, and other facilities are designed, built, and maintained across the country, ultimately improving the transportation system's safety, reliability, effectiveness, sustainability. This document highlights examples of valuable FHWA research,
translated into applications of ground-breaking technology that improve the
transportation system's performance - in safety, reliability, effectiveness, and
sustainability.

FHWA's mission-driven research is conducted in the following focus areas:

For transportation agencies faced with aging infrastructure and a backlog of roads and bridges in need of repair or major rehabilitation, even while costs have risen faster than budgets, enhancing system performance is key to continuing to provide the transportation system that the Nation depends on every day. FHWA's 21st century research is developing the technologies that will result in smarter, safer, and longer lasting pavements and structures, while reducing congestion and saving money. Many of these technologies have already moved from the laboratory to the highway, providing dramatic real-world benefits and changing the way transportation agencies do business.

Busy highway interchange

BUILDING THE BRIDGE OF THE FUTURE

Building bridges better, faster, and for less money - In Ohio, the bridge of the future has arrived. Rather than demanding expensive new equipment or materials, these revolutionary new bridges can be built using readily available materials and common construction equipment, without the need for highly skilled workers. What's new is that the bridges use geosynthetic reinforced soil (GRS) technology for abutments. Instead of a conventional bridge abutment, GRS technology employs the low-tech approach of alternating layers of compacted local soil and sheets of geotextile fabric reinforcement to provide support for the bridge. The technology produces bridges that are extremely durable, while saving money at the same time. Compared to standard bridge construction, transportation agencies can cut their costs by 25 to 50 percent.

Researchers at the U.S. Forest Service and the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) pioneered the early development of the technology. FHWA then worked with CDOT to further refine it. FHWA has built and tested several full-scale GRS structures at its Turner-Fairbank Highway Research Center in McLean, Virginia.

In 2005, FHWA provided guidance and abutment design plans to Defiance County, Ohio, to build the Bowman Road Bridge using GRS technology. This was the county's first time using the technology to build bridge abutments and the innovation quickly paid off. Defiance County realized a cost savings of nearly 25 percent and built the bridge in 6 weeks, shaving 2 weeks off the construction time for a conventional bridge. Since that initial project, 13 more bridges have been built in Defiance County using GRS, with similar successful results. Other Ohio counties and several States also are interested in using the technology. In summer 2008, Warren County, Ohio, built both a temporary bridge and a permanent bridge on GRS abutments. Morgan County, Ohio, meanwhile, has used GRS to replace a failed bridge abutment.

As more State and local agencies learn about the tremendous potential that GRS offers to save time and money on bridge construction, FHWA's next step is to develop design and construction guidelines on using GRS technology for
highways, with a primary focus on bridge abutment applications.

Reducing Traffic Congestion

On many American roadways, mobility has ground to a halt, eating up time,
money, and economic productivity. According to the Texas Transportation
Institute's 2007 Urban Mobility Report, "congestion caused urban Americans to
travel 4.2 billion hours more and to purchase an extra 2.9 billion gallons of fuel for
a congestion cost of $78 billion" in 2005. FHWA is identifying needs and
developing and deploying innovations that have the potential to dramatically
reduce traffic congestion. These innovations include new traffic control and
highway design technologies.

From highways to local roadways,
congestion is a daily reality for many of
the Nation's drivers. Reducing that
congestion presents transportation
departments with a complex challenge.
Should they add more lanes? Change
the traffic signal timing? Or restrict the
use of certain lanes to high-occupancy
vehicles? FHWA's Corridor Simulator
(CORSIM) software, which grew out of
simulation software first developed by
the agency in the late 1970s, has been
used by thousands of engineers and
researchers worldwide to simulate
traffic and traffic control systems,
offering solutions to help reduce
congestion and improve highway
operations.

The software simulates traffic and traffic control systems using commonly
accepted vehicle and driver behavior models. The real-world benefits can be seen
in towns such as Des Moines, Iowa, where a freeway diamond interchange built to
accommodate only modest traffic flows was no longer working. Congestion was
rising and drivers' patience was waning. Plans were being made to raze the
existing interchange and construct a massive partial cloverleaf interchange capable
of handling heavier traffic loads. However, engineers first tested their existing
interchange using CORSIM. The test indicated that the problem was due more to
poorly timed adjacent traffic signals than a lack of roadway capacity. FHWA staff,
working with the Iowa Department of Transportation, recommended
modifications to the existing signal patterns, which both improved traffic and
saved Iowa $14 million in right-of-way purchase costs alone.

It is estimated that more than 300 million vehicle hours of traffic delay in
metropolitan areas and on local roads are caused by outdated or poor traffic signal
timing. ACS Lite, a reduced-scale version of FHWA's Adaptive Control Software
(ACS), offers a low cost solution that operates in real time, adjusting signal timing
to accommodate changing traffic patterns and ease traffic congestion. It is
designed for closed loop traffic signal systems, which account for 90 percent of the
traffic signal systems in the United States. The software can be used with new
signals or to retrofit existing traffic signals.

Traffic control signal box

ACS Lite has been integrated with selected controllers manufactured by Eagle, Econolite, McCain, and Peek/Quixote. Four separate field tests were conducted with ACS Lite to validate the operation of each manufacturers' controller. Among the locations that tested ACS Lite is Manatee County, Florida. Results showed a 12 percent reduction in travel time and a 23 percent reduction in travel time delays. The average improvements observed on typical weekdays from all of the field tests included a 22 percent reduction in travel time, a 25 percent drop in the number of stops, and over 4,000 gallons of fuel savings per intersection annually. Testing in Florida and the other locations has also resulted in estimated annual roadway user cost savings ranging from $88,000 to $757,000. ACS Lite was developed by FHWA in partnership with Siemens, Purdue University, the University of Arizona, and ITT Industries. The ACS Lite system is now available through Eagle, Econolite, McCain, and Peek/Quixote.

More than 40,000 fatalities and 3 million injuries occur on the Nation's roadways
each year. With increased traffic and a growing U.S. population, reducing these
statistics presents a difficult challenge for transportation agencies. FHWA
researchers analyze roadway accidents from all angles. By looking at the driver,
the vehicle, and the highway infrastructure, researchers can identify deficiencies
that lead to accidents and develop measures to counter those deficiencies and
create a safer roadway environment for all users. This multipronged approach
includes examining accidents where vehicles leave the roadway, speed
management, intersection safety, and pedestrian safety.

Median cross-over crashes, where a vehicle crosses the median into opposing
traffic lanes, can be deadly. The North Carolina Department of Transportation
(NCDOT), for example, has found that fatalities are three times more likely in
cross-median crashes than in other freeway crashes.

NCDOT has been a pioneer in the use of cable median barriers in areas where
there is sufficient median width and a high potential for cross-median crashes.
Since 1998, the agency has installed hundreds of miles of cable median barriers
across the State, instead of using the traditional concrete and metal beam barriers.
NCDOT estimates that between 1999 and 2005 more than 95 cross-median crashes
were prevented, saving more than 145 lives.

FHWA led efforts to apply crash simulation technology for the analysis of crash events,
evaluation of roadside hardware, development of new hardware,
and to demonstrate the
implications of varying maintenance strategies.

As satisfying as that improvement was, North Carolina wanted to do even better.
NCDOT worked with FHWA to analyze cable barrier performance and look for
improvements. The research team applied advanced digital simulation techniques
to analyze the dynamics of vehicles as they cross a median and determined that a
barrier's performance depends on where it is in the median. A barrier that is quite
effective at one position within the median width may be less effective in another
location. Conversely, a barrier with apparent shortcomings may perform well if it
is shifted towards one side or the other. These findings were confirmed in a series
of full-scale crash tests at FHWA's Federal Outdoor Impact Laboratory. This
research has now been expanded to cover different barriers and a range of median
configurations. The results are being used to develop new cable barrier standards
in several States. They are also being translated into guidelines for incorporation
into the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials'
Roadside Design Guide.

In 2007 nearly 2.4 million intersection-related crashes occurred, accounting for 40
percent of all crashes in the United States and 22 percent of all traffic fatalities.
Estimated economic losses from intersection crashes amounted to $92 billion.
Improving intersection safety is one of FHWA's top priorities. FHWA has been at
the forefront of research into the design and application of roundabouts, which
are one-way, circular
intersections where traffic
flows around a center island.
The results from roundabouts
in use are dramatic. A report
published by the National
Cooperative Highway
Research Program in 2007
found that the
installation of roundabouts
led to a 35 percent reduction in total crashes and a 76 percent reduction in crashes causing injuries or fatalities.
Numerous other studies have reported similarly impressive safety benefits from
roundabout use.

In light of these safety benefits, FHWA has designated roundabouts as a priority
technology. To support the implementation of roundabouts, FHWA offers a
comprehensive guide, Roundabouts: An Informational Guide. The Safety and Design
Technical Service Team at the FHWA Resource Center also offers a 1-day
workshop on roundabout safety and design, a video entitled "A Case for
Roundabouts," and an informative brochure to help agencies implement
roundabouts in their jurisdictions.

In recent years, FHWA researchers have evaluated alternative intersection designs
that offer to improve intersection safety while meeting the challenges of increasing
capacity, decreasing congestion, and minimizing the cost of new infrastructure.
Among these alternative designs is the diverging diamond interchange (DDI).
Using the DDI, arterial traffic approaching the interchange crosses over to the left
side of the arterial roadway. Vehicles can then turn left onto limited-access ramps
entering a highway without having to stop and without conflicting with through
traffic. Eliminating crossing conflicts between vehicles turning left onto the
highway and opposing arterial traffic offers potential safety benefits.

Overview graphic of the diverging diamond interchange (DDI).

The design also offers
operational and cost
benefits. The Missouri
Department of
Transportation
estimates that a
proposed DDI in
Kansas City would cost
half as much as
retrofitting a
conventional diamond interchange. Traffic modeling also suggests that upon completion the proposed
DDI would be operating at only 60 percent of its traffic capacity, while the
conventional diamond interchange option would be operating at 95 percent of
capacity. FHWA researchers are monitoring plans to construct DDIs in Kansas
City and other locations so that their actual safety and operational performance
can be documented.

With transportation sources accounting for nearly 30 percent of carbon dioxide
emissions in the United States, reducing emissions and minimizing the impact of
highway infrastructure on the environment is a significant focus of FHWA's
research and technology activities. FHWA is a primary sponsor of the U.S.
Department of Transportation's Center for Climate Change and Environmental
Forecasting. Through strategic research, policy analysis, partnerships, and outreach,
the Center develops comprehensive and multimodal approaches to reduce
transportation-related emissions.

FHWA is working to improve construction techniques and reduce the impact of
highway infrastructure on the environment, including efforts to accelerate
construction and reduce congestion and related emissions, reduce the runoff from
highways, prevent the introduction of harmful elements or byproducts into the
environment, increase the reuse and recycling of infrastructure, and reduce the
energy required for highway construction. Additional research is examining the
potential to reduce energy use, emissions, and costs through using innovative
intelligent transportation system technologies, improved regional transit services,
and new bicycle and pedestrian options.

FHWA's Center for Environmental Excellence offers the resources that State and local
agencies need to deliver environmentally sound transportation projects, programs,
and services. Established by the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient
Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users in 2005, the center is run by the
American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials under
FHWA's sponsorship. It provides a one-stop shop for transportation professionals
seeking technical assistance, training, information exchange, partnership-building
opportunities, and quick and easy access to environmental tools. Through the
center, FHWA can leverage its research into environmental sustainability,
promoting best practices, tools, and other innovative techniques and providing
expert knowledge.

The center has produced 10 Practitioner Guides that provide practical advice on
current environmental management issues in an easy to read format. The widely
distributed guides cover such topics as Tracking Compliance with Environmental
Commitments and Defining the Purpose and Need and Determining the Range of
Alternatives for Transportation Projects. "I use all of the center handbooks by
sharing them with my staff, our districts, consultants, and even our local partners,"
says Tim Hill, Administrator of the Ohio Department of Transportation's Office of
Environmental Services. "I have found the handbooks to be an excellent tool to
communicate specific planning and environmental issues. At times, our audiences
grow tired of hearing the rules and requirements from the same perspective. The
center handbooks offer a fresh and new perspective to the requirements and have
greatly reinforced the process and procedures that my office has been training on
for years."

Additional center activities include hosting a popular Webcast on Integrating
Transportation Planning and National Environmental Policy Act Decision-Making.
Also offered as a Podcast, the Webcast highlighted how addressing environmental
issues early on, during the transportation systems and corridor planning process,
can produce projects that more effectively protect and enhance the environment
while providing needed transportation options. Nearly 900 individuals registered
for the Webcast, with some locations hosting multiple viewers.

FHWA also supports the
activities of the Transportation
and Climate Change
Clearinghouse
(climate.dot.gov). Established
with joint funding from the
American Association of State
Highway and Transportation
Officials and the U.S.
Department of Transportation,
the Clearinghouse was launched in January 2009. It offers a central source of information on
transportation and climate change issues for Federal, State, and local agencies and
other stakeholders, providing a forum to share resources, learn about new
research, and better understand new practices and approaches for reducing
transportation-related emissions.

Screen shot of the Transportation and Climate Change
Clearinghouse Web site

Identifying and meeting the common goals of multiple stakeholders is key to
developing and implementing successful transportation projects. Efforts to
minimize and mitigate stakeholder concerns, however, may not always provide
the greatest environmental benefit or promote ecosystem sustainability. A new
approach is advocated in Eco-Logical: An Ecosystem Approach to Developing
Infrastructure Projects. Developed by a U.S. Department of Transportation
interagency steering team with input from four State departments of
transportation, the 2006 guide describes how infrastructure development and
ecosystem conservation can be integrated to more effectively meet economic,
environmental, and social needs and objectives. The guide's resources include
sections on addressing common challenges with locally appropriate strategies,
identifying mitigation options, developing ecosystem-based mitigation
agreements, and adopting performance measures. Using the guide, infrastructure
improvements can be advanced in harmony with such conservation goals as
restoring fragmented habitats and reducing wildlife mortality.

FHWA has awarded 15 cooperative agreements to
organizations in 10 States to field test the Eco-
Logical approach. Projects include a streetscape
improvement initiative in Chicago, Illinois, and
the development of a regional conservation
network in Western North Carolina, including
protected conservation land, farmlands, and
forests.

Transportation research has produced many advances that have improved all
aspects of the highway system, resulting in longer lasting pavements and bridges,
smarter construction practices, more effective asset management systems, and
enhanced highway infrastructure security. FHWA's infrastructure research
initiatives, for example, have developed improved highway materials, including
high-performance materials to increase durability, as well as tools to help agencies
in specifying pavement and bridge materials that better meet performance
requirements. Though often unseen by drivers, these advances are saving lives,
time, and money today.

Increasing demands and limited resources, as well as higher expectations by the
public, mean that the continued development and deployment of technology
innovations is key to meeting the transportation challenges ahead. FHWA research
is supporting the development of a next generation highway infrastructure that
will strive to meet such goals as bridges that last 100 years and pavements that can
be driven on for 50 years. Current research is also developing inspection and
evaluation tools and technologies, as well as innovative materials and methods to
better protect highway bridges and tunnels from security threats, while
maintaining the vital functions of the roadway system. Research into asset
management techniques and practices, meanwhile, has the goal of more effectively
managing highway infrastructure networks while maximizing the return on
investment.

Construction was nearly ready to begin on the new 12-lane Woodrow Wilson
Bridge outside of Washington, DC, in 2000, but engineers were concerned about
the depth of the scour that might form around the bridge piers. Scour, which is an
erosion of stream bed material around bridge foundations, is the leading cause of
bridge failures in the United States. The project team, including representatives
from the Maryland State Highway Administration, FHWA, and several
consultants, turned to FHWA's Hydraulics Laboratory for assistance in predicting
the scour at the new bridge and also at selected piers on the existing bridge, which
would remain in service for several years while work proceeded on the new
structure.

Researchers at the lab used a combination of advanced numerical and physical
scale modeling to simulate the flow and sediment transport conditions at the
bridge and the resulting scour at the piers. During the design process, numerous
alternative pier designs were also studied. The Hydraulics Laboratory evaluated
these alternative designs and provided immediate feedback on the scour depths to
the bridge engineers. The scour evaluations were part of a process that led to
substructure design changes that have made the new bridge safer and more cost
effective.

Another major benefit of the research is that engineers gained a greater
understanding of how vessel impact-prevention structures, which are placed
around the bridge's foundations to prevent ships and barges from colliding with
bridge piers, affect the scouring process. Lab tests revealed that the concrete
structures, known as dolphins, proposed for protecting the main river piers of the
Woodrow Wilson Bridge from ship collisions would dramatically increase scour at
the piers. This finding led to changing the design to use a fender ring protection
system that extends all the way around the piers. The new design has saved
millions of dollars and is expected to reduce the maximum scour by nearly half
and provide better protection from vessels.

Since 1987, FHWA's Long-Term Pavement Performance (LTPP) program has
studied why some pavements perform better than others, with the goal of building
and maintaining an improved, more cost-effective highway system. More than
2,400 asphalt and portland cement concrete (PCC) pavement test sections have
been monitored across the United States and Canada. Data from 13 LTPP test
sections that had been constructed as new asphalt concrete over a new lean
concrete base are now being used by the Strategic Highway Research Program 2
(SHRP 2). As authorized under SAFETEA-LU, SHRP 2's goal is to develop
recommended procedures, practices, and applications to advance the Nation's
highway system in the key focus areas of safety, renewal, reliability, and capacity.
SHRP 2 Project R21, "Composite Pavement Systems," is investigating the design
and construction of new composite pavement systems, focusing on the use of an
asphalt layer over a PCC layer and a PCC surface over a PCC layer. Data from the
LTPP test sections are being used to develop, refine, and calibrate rutting and
fatigue cracking models for composite pavements, providing valuable input to the
design of composite pavements that would be both long-lasting and easily
maintained.

As metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs) and State departments of
transportation make decisions about which projects to fund through their
Transportation Improvement Programs (TIP) and Statewide Transportation
Improvement Programs (STIP), prioritizing projects and streamlining the planning
process is vital to accomplishing their transportation goals. Decisions on which
projects to include are based on many factors, including future travel demand,
project life-cycle costs, land use changes, economic growth, safety, and
environmental impacts. Once projects are funded, tracking them as they move
through the various stages toward the start of construction is also crucial. These
stages include facility planning, engineering and design, right-of-way acquisition,
advertising, bid review, construction scheduling, and related phases of work.

FHWA's Transportation, Economic, and Land Use System (TELUS) software
provides key support in helping agencies manage their TIPs and track projects,
resulting in significant time and cost savings. TELUS allows users to track the
project schedule, costs, and funding, as well as offering analysis tools to rate and
prioritize projects. The fully customizable program is available in both a stand
alone desktop version and a Web-based version. Two-hundred and twenty-four
MPOs and 34 State departments of transportation are registered users of TELUS,
as well as 36 other local and regional government agencies. More than 60 MPOs
use TELUS for TIP development.

The Web-based version of TELUS has been deployed by the Alabama Department
of Transportation, as well as MPOs in Houston, Texas, New York, New York, and
Dayton, Ohio. In Alabama, the transportation department is using a Statewide
Web-based version of TELUS to link all of the State's TIPs into one database. The
Web-based version also helps facilitate the public involvement process by enabling
community members to obtain project information. The New York Metropolitan
Transportation Council's (NYMTC) implementation of TELUS, meanwhile, has
streamlined and improved information exchange and communication among
different units of NYMTC and its member agencies. "It increased personnel
efficiency and productivity, tremendously reduced the paperwork, reduced the
erroneous data in the system, and expedited the approval process," says Larisa
Morozovskaya, Senior Transportation Analyst with NYMTC.

MPOs can realize significant cost savings by using TELUS. For example, an MPO
with a TIP consisting of 450 projects can save an estimated $200,000 to $300,000 per
year by using TELUS for TIP development, review, and approval. States can also
benefit. A State department of transportation can save an estimated $30,000 to
$55,000 a year by using TELUS to provide project-related information to its various
offices, outside consultants, and others. The ability to view project information
online, record comments, and ask questions can also save community members as
much as $40,000 annually, as TELUS eliminates the need to travel to a local
planning office or to public hearings.

Freight movement by all modes of transportation has grown rapidly, spurred by a
combination of globalization, changing logistical practices, population growth, and
increased economic demand. The American Association of State Highway and
Transportation Officials estimated in 2007 that U.S. container traffic increased from
8 million units in 1980 to 42 million units in 2005, and is expected to hit 110 million
units by 2020. Along with the increases in freight volume, the average length of
haul for trucks increased 80 percent between 1970 and 2000. FHWA supports
research opportunities identified through the Freight Cooperative Research
Program and is also assisting with regional operational needs, such as developing
compatible traffic control technologies and procedures and identifying methods to
expedite freight movement.

With more than $200 billion worth of goods moving back and forth across the U.S.,
Mexican, and Canadian borders each year, along with the 200 million people that
legally cross the borders, border wait times can have a tremendous impact on the
U.S. economy. Using satellite technology, FHWA manages an effort to measure
travel times in corridors with a significant amount of freight traffic and border
crossing times at major U.S. land border crossings. FHWA is also developing new
technologies to automatically measure travel time and border crossing times. Two
test programs are being conducted at border crossings in Otay Mesa, California,
and El Paso, Texas. By collecting this delay and travel time information, FHWA
can help Federal and State agencies target transportation investments where the
greatest needs exist, reducing congestion at border crossings and accelerating the
movement of freight traffic.

From super highways and multispan bridges to rural byways, FHWA's
commitment to highway research has changed the way roads and bridges are
designed, constructed, and maintained across the country. Looking to the future,
new research initiatives are building on this legacy, taking the country in the
direction of advanced technologies that will help redefine the 21st century
transportation system.

The 20-year Long-Term Bridge Performance Program, for example, is investigating
how the United States can manage its bridges better and ensure their safety and
durability. The program will inspect, evaluate, and periodically monitor a
representative sample of bridges nationwide.

The Exploratory Advanced Research Program, meanwhile, is focusing on longterm,
high-risk research with a high payoff potential. Projects sponsored by the
program include an initiative to improve the early detection of corrosion in
bridges, ultimately increasing bridge safety and saving billions of dollars annually
in maintenance, restoration, and replacement costs.

FHWA is also researching the impact of extreme hazards, such as earthquakes,
coastal floods, and hurricanes, on bridges and other highway structures, as well as
the impact of global climate change.

As has been accomplished in the past with such technologies as the ACS Lite
software, these diverse research initiatives will continue the legacy of working
with State and local agencies, industry representatives, universities, and other
partners to achieve the breakthrough advances in transportation the country needs
today. For millions of American drivers, FHWA's transportation research remains
the ticket to a safer, less congested future that will continue to keep them moving.